It is impossible to run the eye along the brilliant array of Christ’s workmen, and not see the truth of this need for brokenness: Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, in Old Testament times; and Peter, Paul, and John, in those of the New, all stand before us as vivid illustrations of the value of broken material. All those beloved and honored servants had to be broken in order to be made whole, to be emptied in order to be filled, to learn that, of themselves, they could do nothing in order to be ready, in Christ’s strength, for anything and everything.

Such is the law of the household, the law of the vineyard, the law of the kingdom. So Gideon found it in his day. His “alas!” was followed by Jehovah’s “Peace; fear not,” and then he was ready to begin. He had been brought face to face with the angel of God, and there he learned not only that his family was poor in Manasseh, and he the least in his father’s house, but that in himself he was perfectly powerless, and that all his springs must be found in the living God. This is a priceless lesson for the son of Joash, and for us all! A lesson not to be learned in the schools and colleges of this world, but only in the deep and holy retirement of the sanctuary of God.